Ways to Connect

In recent weeks, many listeners have noticed something new: NPR hosts urging them to tell their smart speaker to play NPR. It's a sign that NPR is now available and prominently featured as a leading news source on Amazon's Alexa, Apple's HomePod, Samsung's Bixby, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google Home. But the messages have confused some listeners and raised concerns from others about why NPR is seemingly promoting the technology, and whether it is being paid to do so.

The report of an independent two-month investigation into how NPR's management handled allegations of sexual harassment by Michael Oreskes, the former Senior Vice President of News who was forced to resign Nov.

On Dec. 10, my office (as well as the NPR newsroom directly) received emails from a retired Bellingham, Wash., resident named Paul Vanderveen, requesting corrections to an NPR story.

My office gets requests for corrections nearly every week and normally we don't write about them. Occasional mistakes are a regrettable byproduct of journalism and it's more important that errors get corrected quickly, as I've found NPR usually does. But this one stood out, and seemed worth a closer look.

NPR's Visuals Team, specifically the Video team, had a formidable showing at the White House News Photographers Association's "2018 Eyes of History: Multimedia Contest" over the weekend. According to the association's website, "The Eyes of History contests are held annually to select the best in visual journalism across still, video, and multimedia disciplines."

The NPR Visuals team racked up a total of 12 awards across the nine categories.

NPR's news operation is a team effort. But a newsroom can't abruptly lose its leader — as NPR did in November when Michael Oreskes resigned under pressure amid allegations of sexual harassment — and expect to bounce back quickly or easily.

Take a political year that lurched exhaustingly from major story to major story. Combine that with the newsroom year-end tradition of ranking the biggest stories of the year. What you got last week in NPR's case was a game of political brackets, a take-off on the March Madness college basketball tournament matchups pitting 64 teams against each other in a knockout competition, with people at home playing along by choosing who they think will win.

It feels like Illinois is lost without a map these days. The current quiet drive is trying to navigate the fog but has been slow moving as of late. An additional $60,000 is needed to reach goal by next Tuesday (May 31). If we're still short of our destination then, we'll go into OVERDRIVE June 1.

I am so appreciative for the Calendar Club members and other donors who support NPR Illinois. I hear this sentiment from staff, members, and listeners. It's what makes public radio special.

Thanks to all who took the time to participate in the NPR Illinois Advisory Convening. K-12 funding was the main topic the group discussed. Listen to the unedited, raw audio to hear how it progressed. It has been posted in two parts to make file size manageable. View the slide show of the participants above.